Although it started as a day of thanksgiving for the original colonists, the celebration of Maryland Day as we know it today began in the early twentieth century when the State Board of Education designated March 25th as a day for the study of Maryland History and became an official state holiday in 1916. This year, the Maryland Historical Society celebrates Maryland Day through the richness of our state's culture and cuisine. Join us for two events celebrating the history of food: a lecture presented by Paul Freedman focusing on the ten restaurants that changed America and Maryland's Fabulous Fare, a special fun-filled evening of delicious food inspired by historic recipes, drinks, and entertainment. During your visit, stop by our museum shop and explore all of the Maryland foodways books and gifts perfect for celebrating Maryland Day this year!

Featured Event

The Maryland Historical Society invites you to join us for a very special event as we celebrate Maryland culture and cuisine at our annual Maryland Day fundraiser. Your taste buds will experience a wide range of culinary delights, including flavors that have been pulled from the Chesapeake Bay (oysters, crab, coddies, mock turtle), produce from the fields and orchards (fresh corn and hominy, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, peaches, and apples), an assortment of proteins such as venison, ham, pit beef, and sweets that evoke the tastes of immigrants coming to Maryland up through the 19th century. Quench your thirst in the Beer Garden or sip on one of the evening's specialty cocktails. Local chefs and food historians will be on hand at food stations presenting their historic dishes while The New Romanos keep the party going with live music. You don't want to miss this taste of history!

Joyce White is a foodways historian operating A Taste of History with Joyce White, offering food history PowerPoint presentations with tastings on a variety of topics. Joyce is also the foodways consultant to the c. 1801 Riversdale House Museum in Riverdale Park, MD, was the consultant for the restoration of the 18th century kitchen at Annapolis’s William Paca House, and was the guest curator for the Maryland State Exhibit for the Southern Food & Beverage Museum in New Orleans, LA.

Doug WetzelExecutive Chef & Kitchen Czar at Gertrudes

Graduating from the Culinary Institute America in 2003, Doug started his career at a California farm bakery, Della Fattoria. He eventually came back to Maryland to work at the Ritz Carlton in Washington, D.C. and has been working with Gertrude’s for six years. In 2017, he competed on The Food Network's CHOPPED. He lives with his wife, Kacey, and two dogs outside of Baltimore.

Jerry EdwardsPresident and Corporate Chef at Chef’s Expressions

In addition to building one of the most successful catering companies in this region, Jerry has traveled the world, training and assisting caterers, chefs and event planners to animate their guest’s culinary experience. Since inception, Jerry’s leadership led to two separate National Catering Company of the Year Awards. He personally won over 50 industry awards and holds an honorary doctorate in hospitality, but is most proud of his NACE Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award. Jerry has been a contributing writer for several national magazines including Catersource, Special Events and Catering. He is currently working on two books, one for the industry titled “A Chef’s Perspective” and one for the culinary public titled “Seasons of the Grape,” a book on seasonal cooking and wine pairing in wine growing regions around the globe.

From Delmonico’s to Sylvia’s to Chez Panisse, food historian Paul Freedman will present a daring and original history of dining out in America as told through ten legendary restaurants. Combining a historian’s rigor with a foodie’s palate, he will reveal how the history of our restaurants reflects nothing less than the history of America itself. Whether charting the rise of our love affair with Chinese food through San Francisco’s fabled The Mandarin, evoking the richness of Italian food through Mamma Leone’s, or chronicling the rise and fall of French haute cuisine through Henri Soulé’s Le Pavillon, Freedman uses each restaurant to tell a wider story of race and class, immigration, and assimilation.